A Remarkable Day

Today we had a difficult choice to make.  We had set up the entire day with teaching appointments when we got notice that we were invited to go to Christchurch to an ARP meeting.  We were a little torn.  We had finally started getting some people to attend our ARP meetings and we probably needed more training but we already had set up the day.  We decided to stay home and do the teaching appointments because we are called to be missionaries.  We surely are glad we chose to stay.

Our first appointment was with a lady that we met briefly before the missionaries knocked on her door.  Because the mssionaries are no longer allowed to teach single sisters alone, they gave us her name so we could contact her.  We had already set up one appointment which she had to cancel because of another appointment.  We were kind of tentative thinking that perhaps she may cancel again.  It was quite the opposite.  She welcomed us warmly and listened to everything we said with deep sincerity.  We taught her many things and she was so receptive.  She is coming to church on Sunday and we have a return appointment next week.

Next, we visited a man and wife who we have known almost since we arrived here.  He had walked up to us in a business, looked at our name tags and invited us to come see them at their home.  He had not intended to go to that business nor had we.  We both decided to go on an impression and we all felt the spirit guiding us.  We taught them almost the same set of lessons that we taught the first lady.  These lessons included the dvd "The Restoration" and some short clips from another church dvd.  There was a strong feeling in the room and we felt that we made much headway especially when he was challenged to pray about what we taught and he said, "I think I already know."  We will see them again next week as well.

Our third appointment was with a fellow we have been teaching along with his young son.  He is a man we met in an op-shop shortly after we arrived and had only a brief "Hi, how are you?" kind of conversation with.  We happened to drop in to his home one night.  We did not know it was his home and really didn't remember meeting him until he reminded us.  He had been looking for us.  He has been praying, reading and coming to church regularly.  He has committed to do what we have asked him to do. He has been having "feelings" he has never felt before for some time now and we set a tentative baptismal date for Dec. 1.  He is so nice and so sincere.  He really wants what is best for the future of he and his son.

All of these people have had difficult lives.  One of them said, "If you had come a few weeks ago, I would have said no.  Today, I am in the right place and I am ready."  We would have loved all of them regardless of whether we were allowed to teach or not.  There are many here that we love even though we know we may never get the opportunity to teach them much about the church except what they see.  Today was remarkable in that we had two good choices to make.  One, to go to the meeting and learn more about the ARP or two, to go out and share what we hold so dear with some wonderful sons and daughters or God, our brothers and sisters on the earth.  We are so grateful that Heavenly Father led us to make the choice that was just right for this particular remarkable day.

From Shanghai with Love

This sweet message was one of three we received yesterday from our Chinese friends who are home again in Shanghai.  She has sent us 5 so far in the last 2 days.  It just proves to me that when the spirit wants to touch someone, it will if the vessel is open and ready.  I don't even know how to express the feelings of that single night and the next morning.  We were with this family for only a few hours yet I feel bonded for a lifetime.  I cannot post their pictures due to certain regulations but I have many that she sent us.  We returned our family pictures to her.  She lives in a housing complex within a nuclear power complex.  I one day hope that we can visit her or she and her family can visit us. It doesn't matter where but until that day, our hearts and spirits are bonded.  Just like home, she can't remember my name but she caught onto Happy Ken! : )

 

Happy Ken, hello, finally can see you soon, I use online translation, though not very accurate but I can know about meaning, even say nothing, I can feel your heart and the great love, because our hearts had interlinked, heart are interlinked, borders and space are not problems, only love is the need to express, thought is the need to exchange, the language really is a problem, not, I believe, we will have very good communication and exchanges, as Dunedin that wonderful evening, I'm from deep inside Thanksgiving to god can give us the good night, let we can meet bosom friend and appreciate each other, I never did not think of this life can have you so precious friend came into my life and into my heart, I'll treasure treasured the good, the beautiful for I am holy holy, I for the good and moved so very grateful!

 

We together of the time is short, but the mind is actually in an instant fusion, this is extremely valuable, that good night, I felt great love is love and love is holy love, I seem to accept the baptism of the love, the love brings me never had the happy! This is the most beautiful and good human feelings, this is god to give me the best gift!

 

You send me the book, I will carefully see of, also is met very good treasure with all my life, this know this gift of precious and weight, more know it for what I mean, and I think this is the will of god, you are the god sent the messenger of love, to spread love to care for us. I think we will often contact often bosom friend, hope we can expect to see the that day!

on October 25, 2012

A Difficult World.

I'm just a little sad this afternoon.  I got an e-mail from our mission president's wife telling us we cannot post any pictures or names of our new converts because people get them and make it very hard for them.  What is the world coming to.  We can't even celebrate happy occassions because others will not let us.  I had a baptismal picture of our little convert family on my site but had to take it off along with any names I had put up.  Seems even the good things can be made to look bad.  Good thing I have that memory, bad that I can't share it in the way I would like.

Tired But Happy!

It has been a crazy three weeks.  We spent the week of the 1st in Dunedin helping out with the new missionary couple coming in.  They are the Webbs from Centerville and they are really sweet people.  Dunedin is beautiful but I guess it can get pretty cold.  It is cold here so 3 hours further south can't help but be more cold!

We came home Thursday night in time to get ready for our wedding and baptism.  It was a good thing we did because there was much to do.  The wedding came off Friday morning about 12 and the baptism ended up being held at the chapel rather than the due to weather.  You never know here, it's kind of like Utah!  Anyway, it was wonderful. I have been trying to donwload the wedding and baptism pix for a slideshow but so far, no luck with that.  Will keep trying.

We cleaned up on Saturday, had meetings all day Sunday and then headed to Auckland on Monday at 4 in the morning.  We arrived in Auskland in time to catch the van to Hamilton 1 1/2 hours away.  We spent the week at the temple.  It is a beautiful place and we had a wonderful week.  We worked in the baptistry every day, Tues thru Fri. and hit multiple endowment sessions topped off by a sealing session with our branch members getting family names done.  One of our members was sealed to her adult daughters which was so nice for them.  Her husband died less than a year ago. 

We went to the Hamilton Botanical gardens which are really beautiful.  There are gardens for England, Italy, Japan, China, India and the US that we were able to visit.  I am sure we missed some of them.  Took tons of pictures.  On the way home Saturday, we were able to visit the Auckland MTC which was very interesting.  They are prepping for double the amount of missionaries with the age change.  Flew home Sat. afternoon, got home about 7 and went for groceries and a couple of other things and collapsed.

Sunday we showed 3 sessions of conference with a linger longer between.  On Monday, we started trying to catch up with all that didn't get done the previous 2 weeks.  It is amazing how hard it can be when you leave a bunch of things behind to catch it all up!  I think we have pretty well done it though.  A non-member couple who are friends called because she was having surgery and we spent most of one day with them.  Add in institute and lessons for our investigators plus all the other church duties and it has been pretty busy.  Oh well, we like it because we really feel like we are needed and accomplishing something here.

I am so grateful we got to go to the temple.  It was a wonderful experience.  We walked around it every time of day and night.  At night, it looks like it is floating in the air.  The weather was awesome until Saturday when we left, then it was raining like crazy and blowing even worse.  Guess it was time to go home.  I love my own little bed in Timaru.

A New Life

We hurried home from Dunedin because that trip happened in the midst of another very important event.  There were serious preparations on for a marriage and a baptism and we felt like we had been slacking a little in not being there to help.  The wedding was to take place at our home and the baptism was planned for Te Moana Gorge near Geraldine.  There was a lot yet to do and little time to do it. 

At little surprise to us, the branch had stepped right up to help get things ready.  I started getting calls about table clothes and flowers and food etc. as soon as we got back.  We had a stressed bride whose wedding dress was not finished (a prime stressor for any bride) and other worries as well.  With a little love and attention and a couple of blessings, those things resolved themselves and the feat was on it's way.

The day dawned sunny and clear, if a little chilly.  Missionaries, branch members and family started to arrive to set things up.  A branch sister brought 3 big pavlovas (the couple's favorite dessert) and bouquets for the bride and bridesmaid. Another sister arrived with two big pans of yummy pudding, Yet another brought the amazing chocolate cake and one more brought a gorgeous table arrangement.  Missionaries scurried around setting up chairs and tables and putting paper on them.  The guests began to arrive.

The big moment was almost there.  The bride came with her brother who would give her away and her daughter who was the maid of honor.  She was pretty tense and just a little scared, just the same as any other bride.  She was  escorted her to the groom and Pres.  began the ceremony with a traditional Maori welcome.  Just like every wedding, the vows were short and sweet, rings were exchanged and the singing began.  We were favored with several songs by various people until the food arrived. They had a big traditional hangi "feast" and everyone enjoyed themselves even when the wind started to blow a gale!

With the weather changing quickly, there was concern about what to do about the baptisms.  The bride's friend called and said it was pouring in the gorge (not unusual here) and so they decided to go to the chapel for the baptisms.  Fortunately, Pres.  had listened to the promptings that said, "Fill the font."  He did that so it was all ready though unheated!  The font was almost as cold as Te Moana Gorge water. : )  Nevertheless, four people were brought to the waters of baptism.  After seven tries, 2 for mom, 3 for daughter and 1 for each of the boys, they all came out of the water fresh and clean.  I couldn't see Mom but Ken said she stood at the top of the stairs beaming as her children were each baptized.  When she came out, she was shining.  She looked like a different person.  It was pretty amazing.

We are so fortunate to be able to take part in the new beginnings of this little family.  I'm sure God will bless them to carry on doing what they know is right so that we can see them in the temple next November.  That is the plan and we will have faith that it will happen.

Shanghai via Dunedin!

This week our mission president asked us to go to Dunedin, easily the prettiest place we have yet seen here.  We were to greet a new couple, Elder and Sister Webb and help get them set up to start their mission experience here.  We had the opportunity to do a few things here that were fun and enjoyable before meeting the Webbs who had been on a plane for who knows how many hours.  We picked them up, took them to get groceries, out to dinner and then back to their flat for some well needed sleep.  They are wonderful people and we had a good time with them today.

The big bonus came after we took care of them tonight.  For some reason, I chose a little bed and breakfast to stay in while we were here.  I checked out lots of regular motels etc. but we love B&Bs and this was about the same price as the hotels so I booked it for two nights (we planned to stay three but couldn't because of the wedding at our home on Friday).  When we got back from delivering the Webbs to their home, we came back to our place expecting to just hang out and relax a while.  What we got was sooooo much more.

As we came in, Ken checked in the lounge.  There he was greeted by a chinese lady we had seen the night before with her husband and daughter.  They are here on holiday and mom and dad wanted to talk with us.  They invited us in to "sit down" and have a cookie with them.  We sat down and things started out a little awkwardly.  They didn't speak English and we didn't speak Chinese.  After a lengthy picture taking session which included the owners of the B&B, the daughter soon became a go between and we had a delightful time talking with them.

The mom kept talking about feeling one anothers hearts and soon the spirit was alive in that room.  They were so sweet and genuine.  There was much teasing and sharing of feelings and love.  You could feel it in the room.  It seemed to make the air heavy and it was pretty amazing.  We were having a missionary experience and we hadn't even tried.  She seemed to have so much respect for the fact that we were working for the church.  We gave her a thank you note and a pass along card and our business card.  She gave us some good luck charms from China.  We gave each other our hearts.

Thanks President Kezerian for asking us to do this thing which was so right and which has led to the sharing of e-mails and addresses and future opportunities.  Thanks Heavenly Father for inspiring him and us.  We are so blessed to be here, two Americans, doing what we are doing and sharing the gospel with all God's children in Dunedin, New Zealand with a family from Shanghai, China.  It can't get better than this!

Facts I Needed to Know.

It has been an extremely interesting few days here.  I have learned so much that I didn't understand or know before.  First, we have been visiting a little family that lives in what can only be described as a hovel.  There is trash everywhere and about half the time they are so drunk they are either loving you or fighting you.  I went there again this week because we saw them on the street in a nearby town, drunk again.  They asked us to take them home and my first thought (shame on me) was to say we couldn't and to worry about who would see us.  My next thought was that they are God's children too and we were invited there in the first place by a family member who loves and cares about them.  We loaded them up in the car and drove them home at which time she grabbed me by the hand and said, "Come on woman!" and so I followed.  Inside she gave me some flowers woven of flax leaves that she had been saving as a gift for me.  Why?  Because I took them some carrot cake which they "portioned out" and ate over several days because no one ever brings them anything.  On our way home Ken's comment was, "The whole have no need of a physician."

On Sunday we met a man who is in heart failure.  We were a members last attempt at getting this man to listen to something about the church.  He has many friends within the church but she is the only one who has ever really challenged him to "Come Unto Christ".  He told us many stories of war.  He was in the army for 30 years in Malaysia, Viet Nam and elsewhere.  He was so gentle and kind.  He had many mormon friends from boyhood and his father had been LDS.  He said something about the mormon kids being the ones he wanted to be with and I asked him what drew him to them.  He seemed to think on that.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with him and my prayers for God to lead us to those who need us were answered when he held his hands out with the palms a couple of inches apart and said,  You have opened the door this much."  We left him a Book of Mormon and a Finding Faith in Christ video and a promise to come back and see him again.  His wife gave us avocados.  Should we keep on trying?

On the beach today we met a man who told us an almost unbelievable story.  I had never heard of this before but  know it is true.  He was put on a boat in England at 14 months of age.  He was given a phony name and listed as an officer in the armed forces.  When they reached New Zealand, he was put off the boat with lots of other children.  Their parents were making a valiant effort to save their lives or they were just taken without consent and put on the ships.  Their identities became lost aided by the people here and even the armed forces and police.  Hundreds of children were left in various places with nothing and no one.  He said, "I am 67 years old and I do not know who I am.  I have been trying to do some searching for years and have found nothing.  Someone told me to contact the "Mormons"."  We were  able to say, "We have a genealogy center right here in Timaru at our meeting house."  He was tickled to know that and said he would go and see if they could help him.

Today we met with some Samoan saints who are at the polytech going to school for 15 weeks.  He is a high councilman at home in Samoa.  She is a less active member.  As we talked, it became very apparent that she had little understanding of the church into which she was baptised.  He, while he had more understanding, still has the idea that it is better to have Samoan wards, Tongan wards, Maori wards etc.  While I agree that it might be better to have access to those languages, one thing we need to remember is this.  This is a worldwide church.  It is not assimilated into other cultures but rather, other cultures become a part of what this is, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  The church becomes the overriding culture.  That is why, when we come to Timaru New Zealand from Pleasant Grove Utah, we are still a part of a communtiy.  We become no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens in the household of God.  Thank you Paul, you are certainly right.

Are we affecting lives?  I know we are.  There may not be big changes and huge conversions but every life we touch is changed including our own.  I hope they are all for the better.